Leander Plummer Relief Paintings

Leander Plummer (1857-1914) was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His father was one of the incorporators of the successful New Bedford Cordage Company. He was educated in the Friends' Academy at New Bedford, and Harvard University, graduating with the class of 1880, after full courses in which he specialized in civil and mining engineering. Initially working as a mining engineer, Plummer changed direction in 1883, when he decided at the age of twenty-six to pursue art, and spent the next four years studying at the Academie Julian in Paris. Plummer returned to the United States with his artistic training to paint the wildlife he observed as a fisherman and sportsman in the New Bedford area. Eventually, he experimented with woodcarving and found he had a great aptitude for detailed naturalistic sculpture and combined his painting and woodcarving skills in creating "relief paintings"; his words for deeply carved wood reliefs that he stained with pigments he devised to create a life-like appearance. Plummer's panels became popular among fishermen and sportsmen, and by 1906 he had orders for approximately forty to fifty relief paintings.

Among the many works Plummer executed, he considered Striper Fishing his masterpiece.

Measuring 35' x 62" it sold at auction for $59,000.

Quigley Memorial Video

Nice little tribute to Bob Quigley produced by Kevin Price.

He's one of the "fightingest" fish that swims!

"Seeking Steelhead is a beautiful little clip from the early 1900's courtesy of Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau. Brigadier General Noel Money fishing the Stamp River. Worth a view!"

F yes it's worth a view!

9.11

Some images from my recent visit to the 9/11 Memorial.

St. Paul's Chapel, opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site, served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers post 9/11. The scars on this pew were made by the gear of the sleeping workers.

One of the most powerful reminders at the site is the Survivor Tree and the items that people leave behind.

Angling and War: The Collision of Big-Game Fishing and WWII

During the 1930s, big-game fishing emerged from obscurity to become the new passion of American sportsmen.  By decade's end, the capture of gigantic fish on the flimsiest of tackle had become the stuff of front page news.  Suddenly ... war.  This is the remarkable andd untold story of how the newly emerging sport of big-game fishing was plunged headlong into the defining event of the 20th century: World War II.  That big-game fishing was severely impacted by the war is no surprise, but the contributions of the angling community to the Allied war effort were equally vast.  The story of how each affected the other is both surprising and compelling, and here it is.

LINK

Striped Bass War, 20 Years On

East Hampton baymen and supporters, including Billy Joel

In the Town of East Hampton, the fight over striped bass became a civil war that pitted some of Montauk’s charter fishing fleet against their baymen neighbors. It was an angry time. 

Billy Joel, whose 1989 hit “Downeaster Alexa” told the story of a bayman regulated out of his inshore bass fishery, raised the profile of the protest.

LINK (via: The East Hampton Star)